The World Ocean's biological resources are among the most important sources of man's nourishment: 20 percent of animal proteins consumed by us are produced in water, and the so-called non-fish marine products are suitable even to those for whom meat is counter-indicated. The above-mentioned hydrobionts also contain a lot of microelements and fatty acids necessary to human body, while cholesterol is conspicuously absent in their content. There is small wonder therefore that this sector is effectively developed in countries with favorable climatic conditions for scallop, mussel or, say, laminaria farming in littoral water bodies.

First ever mussel farm in Russia was set up in the Maritime Territory in 1972. And this farm served as a trailblazer in this sphere followed by many other such enterprises. However, even that farm currently turns out at most 500 tons of products annually, which is far below the output of ordinary fishing enterprises (the export of fish and marine products totaled 116,400 t in January - May 2006 alone). Nevertheless, under certain conditions Russia's water bodies of the Sea of Japan and of the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk may be used for setting up large hydrobiont farms. The newspaper Dalnevostochny ucheny carried an article devoted to the subject that was contributed by Sergei Maslennikov, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), a staff member of the laboratory of shelf communities' ecology of the Zhirmunsky Sea Biology Institute of the RAS Far Eastern Branch.

The researchers of the Institute have produced methods for mussel and crustacean farming in open water bodies,

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which will make it possible to make use of a considerable area. The Nereida Research-and-Development Company has introduced the methods and become a major enterprise of mariculture (sea farming) in Russia. Moreover, owing the original methods, conditions are improved for marine product farming. These products may be prepared for sale in big or small batches as the need arises.

Given this approach, over 600,000 t of products may be turned out annually by marine product farms set up in littoral waterbodies of the Maritime Territory alone. And with account of the output of such farms in the shallow zone, estimated at 700,000 t annually by TINRO Center specialists, the sector certainly has good prospects for the future.

Now, what kind of marine animals are regarded as cultivation objects at the existing and future marine farms? These are bilabial mussels (scallops, oysters, mussels, anadara, spisula), erinaceous (sea urchins and sea cucumbers), crustaceans (crabs, craboids, shrimps, water chestnuts, among others) and macrophytes. Maslennikov points out that the best methods developed in Russia are used in Maritime scallop, Pacific mussel (the two species are among the ten world leaders in the sphere of mussel farming), giant oyster, grass shrimp and laminaria farming. Laminaria is the most productive plant species of those cultivated on the Earth (its crop reaches 200 - 300 t of raw mass per ha annually and, according to the World Food and Agriculture Organization data, the output of its commercial cultivation exceeds 4.5 mln t annually). And Far Eastern trepang and Kamchatka crab thriving in Russia's littoral water bodies are among the most expensive commercial invertebrates on the domestic and world market. In other words, our country has a highly advantageous set of species for sea farming. A scientific base for the sector's development has been created. Moreover, the keen demand for marine products in the world is an important factor for promotion of the sector's development.

However, Maslennikov stresses, hydrobionts are currently cultivated solely on an area of 8,000 ha in the Maritime Territory and, consequently, the volume of their output does not exceed 1,000 t, although it could have been twice as large, according to estimates. In order to improve the situation, a number of measures should be implemented, with the Federal Law On Aquaculture to be adopted among them. Moreover, sea farms, traditionally viewed as fishing enterprises, should be actually more properly regarded as similar to agricultural enterprises, for the high cost of their plantations and shore equipment, production and investment cycles are very similar. At the same time, they are closely bound up with

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fishing. The fact is that most of the hydrobionts have their spawning grounds on this relatively calm territory, and later it serves as a mini-reserve for fry for 2 or 3 years.

Maslennikov proposes that the sector be developed on the basis of the mega-project of the RAS Far Eastern Branch "Biotechnopark for Cultivation and Comprehensive Processing of Sea and Plant Raw Products." Under the project, a network of sea biotechnoparks for artificial reproduction of commercial hydro-bionts and monitoring of their habitat in combination with all-round processing of ocean and sea farming raw products should be set up on the Maritime Territory shore to be later expanded throughout the whole Far Eastern Region (Sakhalin, the Kuriles, the Khabarovsk Territory, Kamchatka and Magadan Region).

The scientist points out that it is necessary to set up an effective system of biomonitoring, especially of plankton producing biotoxins, in sea waters in the area of mussel gathering and farming, with control exercised over the content of these substances and with certification in accordance with their content of the products turned out at sea farms. The project of the Center for carrying out the said kinds of activity has been elaborated at the Sea Biology Institute that employs skilled specialists and has the respective equipment at its disposal. Moreover, sewer and wastewater discharge should be monitored in order to avoid undesirable changes in the places of distribution of plantations. Just as before, the leading principles of work there include plot rotation, polyculture, distribution of "sea vegetable gardens" in open waters, i. e., measures to rule out silt formation and, consequently, the accumulation of toxic seaweed spores in the ground.

The high-quality products of the Maritime Territory at the average price of $ 1 per kg will be attractive not only for buyers in Russia but also for the potential vast market of China, Maslennikov notes. Production expansion is a must for cutting the cost of hydrobiont cultivation. As a result, new jobs will be created not only at sea farming enterprises but also in related spheres (the services sphere, construction, transportation). Since the problem of employment is sufficiently acute in the Maritime Territory, there is every reason to step up the development of this sector.